Meet the Authors of the ALF Mitigated Negative Declaration: Planning and Development Consultants Hogle-Ireland

Breaking News - ALF is going for a vote in November. The outcry in Sierra Madre in defense of Measure V paid off. Billy Shields, send that man some roses or something. Vote in November so it will have gone through the entire approval process, including the Planning Commission. This news comes from MaryAnn MacGillivray's website. Click here for more details. Congratulations Sierra Madre!

You do know that there is a vast Developer-Consultant Complex out there, right? They do lots of things, of course. Development is a many faceted effort, and no grand concepts can ever go forward unless all the particulars have been taken care of first. And one of the DCC's more important functions is to bamboozle residents into properly submitting to whatever development is targeted for their town, no matter how big or ugly.

After all, there are always some people who are going to be opposed to whatever it is the client wishes to build, and it's important that the local people be dealt with properly and efficiently.

Currently in Sierra Madre the challenge in question is a little different. We are talking about the Alfington, the senior care center that is slated to rise out of the ashes of the old Skilled Nursing Facility. And what makes this situation somewhat special is that the townsfolk are not necessarily opposed to the project. As a matter of fact, people here have been waiting a long time for something viable to be build on that badly abused site. So what is the problem, you ask?

There is a special developer need in this case. And that is because a local ordinance called "The Voters Empowerment Act" would allow the people of Sierra Madre to actually vote on the client's project. Something that is vehemently opposed by the city government of Sierra Madre, which has apparently somehow convinced the client (Fountain Square Development West) that they should be opposed to it as well. This despite the general popularity of their project.

In the tough cases like this you need to bring in a special company skilled in handling such delicate tasks. And the company hired for that job was Hogle-Ireland.

So how did they propose to work around the troublesome resident voting clause of Measure V? Apparently the mighty minds of Hogle-Ireland got together and cooked up a highly sophisticated and erudite strategy that would not only help beat the residents out of a voting right, it would also open the entire downtown area of Sierra Madre to the kinds of large-scale building projects the Downtown Investors Club has been dreaming of for years. Which was probably the point all along.

Hogle-Ireland have assumed that people here really don't care all that much about their right to review out-sized development through their vote, and all they would need to do is arbitrarily swap out a couple of words in the applicable ordinance and their work would be done. And in something called the "Mitigated Negative Declaration," Hogle-Ireland showed us what can be done for the kinds of handsome consultant fees they command.

"The proposed project is within the Central Core area, as defined by Section 17.35 of the Zoning Code. The project is consistent with requirements of this section with regard to applicable height limits (30 feet and two stories). The proposed assisted living facility is an institutional use, and therefore the project's intensity is not defined in terms of dwelling units per acre. As such (the) limits of Section 17.17.35.040 does not apply."

Pretty diabolical, eh? Rather than deal with the density restriction aspects of Sierra Madre law as it was written, Hogle-Ireland declared that the applicable ordinance language didn't really exist, and then went and arbitrarily made up some new stuff of their own. Just invented it right on the spot. The assumption being that the people of Sierra Madre would lack the will or sophistication to defend their right to vote in this case and, backed up by supportive elected officials, city staff and compliant taxpayer funded city attorneys, this could be made to stand.

And why not? I am sure strategies such as this have worked just fine in a lot of other cities. All you have to do is look around at the architectural disaster much of Southern California has become to understand that people really don't fight back very much against this kind of centrally planned and government dictated sort of stuff. Certainly cities like Downey and Rancho Cucamonga didn't become what they are today because the people living there actually wanted it, right?

So what exactly is Hogle-Ireland? Well, they are an award winning consultancy and planning corporation that has received accolades from none other than the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and the American Planning Association (APA). And they got these fine awards for doing their part to help turn places like Downey and Rancho Cucamonga into some of the absolutely worst examples of the "stack and pack" generic design so favored by Sacramento and the various development and realty lobbies responsible for SB375.

Check this Hogle-Ireland award from SCAG out:

SCAG Compass Blueprint Awards - City of Downey - Downtown Specific Plan - Achievement in Livability Award: The Specific Plan establishes the Downtown as a vibrant urban center with dining, employment, housing, shopping, entertainment, and cultural opportunities all within a short walking distance of one another. ... A crucial aspect of the Specific Plan is the incorporation of a Park-Once Strategy designed to get residents out of their cars, and walking to reach multiple destinations within one trip, thereby reducing the dependence on automobiles.

Ah yes. Urban design as behavior modification. Get out of your car and walk, resident. You as a fallible citizen are not capable of making development decisions on your own, and Hogle-Ireland is here to fill the yawning gaps in your wisdom for you. Doesn't this sound a lot like the claims made for the Downtown Specific Plan that we stopped here 5 years ago? Anybody been to Downey lately? Would you be happy if our city ended up looked like that? Switch about 45 votes in the Measure V election and that is exactly what you'd be looking at today.

Here's another:

City of Rancho Cucamonga - General Plan - Comprehensive Planning Award of Merit: Large Jurisdiction: Unique to the Rancho Cucamonga General Plan is the "Healthy RC" theme, with goals and policies that inspires a lifestyle that embraces a healthy Mind, Body and Earth through lifelong learning and enrichment, active and healthy living, and environmental sustainability.

Now that has got to be some of the most ludicrous nonsense I have ever read. As anyone who has gone out and toured a little of Rancho Cucamonga lately can tell you, it has become a vast sprawling wasteland of cookie cutter condos and half vacant retail. About as Green as old cheese and spread as far as the eye can see. How that is going to improve anybody's mental or physical health is beyond me. It certainly isn't because anyone walks there, either. And if you don't believe me about this, go ask the banks that now have so much of that community on their books as bad debt and foreclosures. Happy acres it ain't.

If you wish to read more about Hogle-Ireland's fabulous awards and encomiums, feel free to click here.

So now you know what has been set loose upon us here by our City government. Hogle-Ireland. Watch as they try to help City Hall steal our right to vote on downtown development. Because apparently that is pretty much what they hope to accomplish here.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com